Graves disease, also known as toxic diffuse goiter, was described separately by Dr. Robert J Graves and Dr. Karl Adolph von Basedow in 1835 and 1840 respectively. Historians give credit for the first description to the Persian physician Sayyd Ismail al-Juriani, who in the XII century described a patient with goiter and exophthalmos [1]. We have analyzed 2000 paintings and sculptures from the western civilization to determine the prevalence of personages with Graves disease.
